James Danderfer

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

I’m in the thick of it now folks, donate your fans, bring me your ice-packs, yours truly is a hot jazz composing/arranging machine and I’m burnin’ up! Specifically, writing hot jazz for the 10-piece “Chamber Jazz ensemble” at McGill so this SMNP is going to be an appropriate length for a change.

I pulled an all-nighter last Wednesday in order to have a new chart ready for the 10-piece band to play on Thursday morning and I’m pleased to say the music sounded pretty good,… I think. Not having slept the night before, I was pretty brain dead on Thursday (after rehearsal the only thing I was able to do was watch “Amazing Billiards Trick Shots” on TSN and then pass out). more…

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

This week it really is all about me…

Discipline and the Schedule

There’s nothing quite like starting your week with a clenched fist and the word “ffffffuuck!!” And so it was that I began my 2nd week of disciplined scheduling when I awoke on Monday to find I had slept in,… by several hours. Like a driver having fallen asleep at the wheel, my eyes opened in shock to see everything had gone off the rails. Completely underwhelmed with myself, I quietly wondered whether or not Monday was even worth bothering with or,… perhaps better I just go to the liquor store now for some Crown Royal, tuck myself in, and call it a day. more…

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

As of last Tuesday I’m back in Montreal, and it feels pretty damn good to be in my own place again!

Don’t get me wrong, I love going home and spending time with family and friends of course, there’s nothing better really, but it’s all about balance. I can be a people person but then I like to get away from it all and just be on my own, getting down to business. And when it comes to business, Montreal is like my personal office: friends and family don’t call me in the office, there are few distractions, chores can wait, and my task is simply to work.

That said, too much time alone in the office comes with it’s own challenges. Sometimes you could use that extra person around, the one who looks at you in disbelief and says “Dude, what the fuck are you doing?” Any self-employed, work-at-home person out there knows exactly what I’m talking about here.

Like, for example, when you more…

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

It is in fact Friday evening as I write this SMNP, from the Patricia Hotel (Vancouver) where CBC Radio will soon host their musical event in honour of the late great Jelly Roll Morton who graced this same venue back in 1919 for over a year.

All the musicians involved were at the CBC studios yesterday to rehearse (and some fine musicians there were, including Bruno Hubert, Brass Roots and the great Henry Butler), then we all had a sound check at The Patricia Hotel this morning. Following that, my trio went back to CBC studios to rehearse some more after lunch, then I came back to The Patricia to play for CBC’s pre-show live radio broadcast (with Ndidi Onukwulu, a very talented singer in town who I just met yesterday), and now here I am, hanging out in the hotel lobby, blogging, while the other musicians drink beer and have a good time. You see? You see what I do for the SMNP?

As for the 8 hours a day thing, well, more…

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

First off, thanks to everyone who made it out to The Cellar last weekend for my “Party Like It’s 1929!” trio show. The band had a blast, the crowd was great, and I came one step closer to familiarity with this older style of jazz,… and that’s a win-win folks.

But just in case you missed it, we’ll be playing in Vancouver one more time (and featuring my CBC commissioned suite for Jelly Roll Morton) at a CBC Radio event (picture below) on Jan. 15th.
Click here for details.

So here we are. 2010 already. I think that was the most stealth decade ever that just blew by. The 20th Century was full of legendary decades, even the “Big 80’s” and the “Gay 90’s” more…

Hello, good morning, Happy New Year! and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Readers, I’m exhausted. It’s currently 3am and I’ve just finished the Jelly Roll Morton Suite,… Holy Hell that was a lot of work. That wasn’t no ordinary jazz composition, that was basicly a 5-part, through-composed suite. But, it had to be done tonight before my rehearsal with the band tomorrow.

I think my pianist is finally going to snap when he sees my piano parts. (pictured right)

Why so complicated James? you ask. I don’t know, this unusual instrumentation (clarinet, piano, drums) is just really piano-centric and if I didn’t write it all out then,… then, it might not sound the way I want it to damnit!

Anyways, I had a real interesting blog post planned for you this week but more…

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Hey hey hey and a Ho ho ho! I hope you’ve all been enjoying some sort of vacation revolving around either Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or Christmas. And if you’re one of the many who don’t care for this time of year then I hope you can at least laugh it off this season while you secretly plan your 2010 Thailand Christmas Holiday Vacation For One trip.

As for me, the celebrations continue today and I’ve treated myself with a brand new colour scheme on my website (thanks Chris!), I feel like a 16 year old girl with a brand new dress to wear to the ball.

So, that’s it for me. I’ve got a full day of over-eating, under-practicing, and checking out my new Esquire Magazine’s “Augmented Reality” features online.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Work continues on my commission for the CBC Jelly Roll Morton tribute in Vancouver, Jan 15. Click here for details.

Basicly, I’m writing a suite for Jelly Roll and his time spent at the Patricia Hotel. Some of it’s finished, some of it’s not. I’ve been spending a fair amount of time at my keyboard lately, recording ideas and little snippets of songs that catch my attention. That’s the easy part though, now I gotta take some of these gems and craft them into full fledged songs. “Driving the tunes home” as it were, is the laborious part, it’s still fun, but it’s still work, and as such, I try to avoid it as much as possible.

Anyways, a few nights ago I thought it was high time I go and see this Patricia Hotel for myself which is located in the infamous “Lowest-income postal code in the country”, East Hastings St. more…

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

Sorry this post is a bit late, I flew from Montreal to Vancouver a few days ago and not just in the nick of time. The day I left, Montreal had its first snow storm of the season, and to my friends who live in Montreal and said it was a “little snow storm,” I said “You’re out of your goddamn minds!” A snow storm is a snow storm, when you get over a half foot of snow in a few hours and it’s blowing up, down, and sideways at the same time, well, that’s mother nature trying to tell you something,… Get out! Pack your shit and take your delicate sensibilities elsewhere! more…

Hello, good morning, and welcome to the Saturday Morning News Post!

First off, let me hype my upcoming Vancouver shows both featuring Miles Black on piano and Joe Poole on drums; they are:

Jan 3rd @ The Cellar: “Party Like It’s 1929!”: A tribute to the classic clarinet trios of Johnny Dodds, Barney Bigard, and Benny Goodman and including some new original music by yours truly.

Jan 15th @ The Patricia Hotel: “Celebrating Jelly Roll Morton.” This show, for which I’ve been commissioned by the CBC to write some new music for, will feature a wide variety of Vancouver bands, including my trio. The event is commemorating Jelly Roll’s time spent living and working in Vancouver and will be recorded and broadcast on CBC Radio some time in the new year.

Moving on. Wow!, this 1st semester at McGill really flew by. Seems like only yesterday I was questioning the legitimacy of studying jazz in University and now more…